Friday, April 03, 2009

LIFE Exclusive! The Day MLK Died


Nearly 41 years after the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the Lorrain Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, LIFE magazine has released never before published pictures of the shooting. The pictures were taken April 4, 1968, by Life magazine photographer Henry Groskinsky. Reverend King was standing on the balcony of the motel at about 6 p.m. when James Earl Ray fatally shot him with a high-powered rifle.

The day before he was killed, King delivered his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" address in which he said, "I have seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."

Thank you, Martin Luther King, Jr. for your message, your dream and your selfless sacrifice. You changed our world forever.

4 comments:

Blonde Goddess said...

VERY NICE POST!
Thank you for posting it. We need to remember the sacrifices of the people who have changed our world for the better.

Anonymous said...

That Life magazine could hold such important photo history for so very long is testament to how truth gets twisted. Did any agency of our government coerce suppression of this photo evidence?

Bonez said...

Blonde Goddess ~ We should always remember and honor the people who have made the ultimate sacrifice with the hopes of improving our world. Thank you for supporting that effort here on Bonez.

Bonez said...

Anonymous ~ I wondered that myself, at first, but I don't think so. The pictures really have no additional evidence value to the case and are fairly nondescript in and of themselves. With the except of the one with the man scooping up the blood and putting it into a jar the pictures are sort of mundane and of very little historical significance. Oh, and the one of Rev. King's open briefcase I thought was very telling about the man. He was a neat and orderly person who was reading additional peace literature outside of his own works.